Another year, another EA FC. And yes, I am still getting used to not calling it FIFA all these years later. But no matter the title, the same question remains when reviewing these games: what’s new this year and do the improvements justify buying the game for another year? As for this year, I think I’d answer that by saying: I think so..
I apologise, I realise that answer isn’t very definitive. But for once FC 27 is a game where I can, hand on heart, say EA has really tried to do something new and refreshing, but with every new game mode or upgrade they’ve added, there’s usually more than a few bugs included in the package to prevent it being great. Let’s get into it.
What’s New?
The biggest new addition has to be ‘The Grounds’. A small open world hub that has undoubtedly been inspired by NBA 2K’s ‘The City’. In this mode you are welcomed by FIFA Journey legend, Alex Hunter, accompanied by Kylian Mbappe delivering what I think might be the worst voice acting ever laid down in video game history, but I digress. In The Grounds you create your own player to play in mini games such as 2 vs 2, a football-basketball hybrid, full rush matches, and much more.
You can also join a club with friends or people you meet along the way, as well as completing objectives that unlock cosmetics to kit out your player, as well as gaining points towards your skills and overall rating. Personally I found this mode to be a good idea if you’re a diehard FC player looking for something more to do with friends, but as a bit of a traditionalist, this wasn’t for me. Also as a father of two who is only really friends with other dads, the idea of getting us all together to explore The Grounds is laughable. And when I did attempt to play alongside strangers, I’d often find myself just waiting in queues for there to be enough players to start the game I wanted. But if you are a more sociable FC player with like-minded friends, there’s probably something here for you.
Career Mode
Moving onto my bread and butter, career mode has had some genuinely exciting new upgrades that in the long-term will make the mode a much more enjoyable experience. My favourite of these is dynamic player ratings. So in my game, I’m playing as Mexican manager Javier Aguirre (now famed for ‘Hey Gordon, F*ck you!”) and attempting to bring ex-Premier League winners Leicester City back to former glories from the depths of League 1. So needless to say, my team wasn’t great.
However, thanks to dynamic player ratings, I had a run of three games in preseason where my 68-rated winger played really well, meaning he went into the first game of the season on a temporary rating of 81! On the other hand, my 72-rated centre back had a bit of a nightmare, and went into the game low on confidence with a temporary rating of 67.
To me this is not only a game changer, but also something I find incredibly realistic. When watching football in real life, you often have average players who go on runs of form where they play like a world class star. Think about Phil Foden’s purple patches he seems to have once a season for example. Overall he probably is around an 80-rated player, but in those great runs of form he plays like a 90-rated megastar. And, of course, the same can be said for good players in bad form.
Aside from the brilliant dynamic ratings, we also have a new system for transfers. No longer do we get those dreadful repetitive cut scenes of the two managers sitting in the same office every time, but instead a phone screen replicating a chat between the two managers. We also get way more variation to the deals, including add-ons based on both team performance and individual player achievements, as well as options to structure the deal over a multitude of seasons.
Then once you include the authentic gameplay and manager transfers that were both added in last year’s EA FC, as well as a bunch of fresh animations and cut scenes, it does actually feel like career mode has had a proper upgrade. If you skipped FC26 and you’re jumping in from maybe 24 or 25, this will feel like a whole new game entirely.
However, as is usually the case with FC games, new gameplay additions often come with some unexpected bugs, and career mode is littered with them. In my short time with the game mode I had a player appearing in the completely wrong kit, a player unable to change squad numbers due to a number clash with a teammate from his old club, my sub bench constantly being randomly swapped about, music playing in the middle of a match, and many more little annoyances. In the grand scheme of things, none of these bugs were game breaking, and will hopefully be patched in the coming weeks, but they did somewhat taint what could be the best career mode upgrade in years.
Gameplay Improvements
The actual gameplay itself actually somewhat mirrors my career mode thoughts. There are some really decent improvements that could almost count as game changing. More control on moving players after a corner is taken, more life-like movement of the ball on passes, and even more realism added to the already realistic authentic gameplay are all very welcomed upgrades. But once again, we have the bugs..
Replays often won’t play mid-game when they should, meaning the players will all stand around like statues as I can only assume the game thinks the cut scene/replay is on the screen. The game will often suggest teams wear the same colour kit, resulting in the game being borderline unplayable if you don’t remember to go in and change it.
But the biggest issue I encountered was when switching the game to AI dynamic behaviour, which was my go-to setting in the last game. This setting is meant to change the way the opposition plays from game to game, but for whatever reason it has an extreme effect this time. In one instance, the AI decided to foul me at every available opportunity. This led to multiple penalties and five red cards that resulted in a forfeit. Not ideal at all when I pick this mode for realism.
FC Ultimate Team
Before I jump into FC Ultimate Team, it’s worth mentioning that I’ve never got on well with this mode, but for review purposes I gave it the old college try.
As somebody who came into this for the first time in a long time, I did feel very overwhelmed. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. FUT has been EA’s biggest game mode for a long time now and it shows. There really is an endless amount of events, objectives, games within games, and lord knows what else to keep players busy all year round. In truth, I barely scratched the surface and somehow still managed to lose hours of my life to FUT.
I completely understand why people find this mode so addictive, and if you’re already a fan of it then I’m sure you’ll absolutely love it again. But this old ass traditionalist is just going to stick to career mode again thank you very much.
Overall thoughts
I have to say that, overall, EA has done a good job in justifying its annual release this year. The Grounds is a completely fresh game mode that could be great for more social players. FUT continues to be the juggernaut it’s always been. Gameplay has had some genuinely good improvements, at least for the authentic mode anyway. And even my beloved career mode has had its biggest upgrade in quite some time, making it the definitive way to play the game for me personally.
Unfortunately though, the amount of bugs scattered across the game are too annoying to just ignore. Now this isn’t the first time an FC game has launched buggy, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. I’m also confident within a few weeks the majority of them will be ironed out. If they are, I could easily see myself going somewhere between an 8 or 9 out of 10 on FC27, the highest score I’ve given one of these games in years.
Until then, though, I can’t give EA FC 27 anything higher than:
7/10